Industries · Real constraints

Industries: the constraints that actually change the hardware choice

The same handheld does not suit a cold store, a production line and a shop floor. It is not the functions that change, it is the constraints. Sector by sector, here are the ones that really determine the equipment, and the mistakes that recur most often.

Logistics and warehousing

The most demanding sector for mobility and networking, and the one where datasheet figures are most misleading.

The constraint: Devices permanently in motion, application sessions that must not drop, concrete floors, metal racking that disturbs radio propagation, and sometimes sub-zero cold.
What decides: Roaming under 50 ms with 802.11r, 802.11k and 802.11v enabled on the access points and supported on the devices; a mesh of one access point per 300 to 500 m² validated by an on-site survey; drop resistance from 1.2 to 2.4 m; anti-vibration mounts on forklifts.
The common mistake: Choosing IP67 devices for cold storage in the belief that the rating covers cold. It covers dust and water only. The real issues are the drop in battery runtime below 0 °C and condensation on the scan window at airlock crossings.

Retail and point of sale

The constraint: Continuity of checkout, public exposure, payment peripherals under their own compliance rules, and an estate often spread across several sites.
What decides: Estate homogeneity between stores, spare part availability across the service life, network isolation of payment terminals, and the licence model of the multi-site Wi-Fi infrastructure.
The common mistake: Comparing Wi-Fi platforms on access point price. Across a multi-site estate kept for five years, the annual per-access-point licence weighs more than the hardware.

Manufacturing and production

The constraint: Dust, vibration, oils and solvents, high labelling throughput, and unpatchable production equipment connected to the network.
What decides: An IP rating genuinely matched to the atmosphere; resin rather than wax ribbon to resist abrasion and solvents; dedicated VLAN segmentation for PLCs and printing peripherals; printers sized for more than 5,000 labels a day.
The common mistake: Sizing the printer on the price of the chassis. At those rates, the cumulative cost of printheads over three years can exceed the purchase price of the machine.

Healthcare and laboratories

The constraint: Aggressive disinfection protocols, regulatory traceability, very small high-density labels, and documentary requirements on hardware conformity.
What decides: Housings compatible with the disinfectants used on site; printing at 300 or even 600 dpi for Datamatrix on small formats; stainless steel mobile workstations in washdown areas; traceable data erasure on any refurbished equipment.
The common mistake: Selecting a standard device and then discovering that the site's disinfection protocol attacks the housing. Chemical compatibility is checked before ordering, product by product.

Hospitality, food service and services

The constraint: An environment visible to customers, noise levels, mobile checkout, and often no in-house IT team.
What decides: Solutions administrable remotely with no network skills on site; quiet hardware, which rules out some refurbished servers whose firmware runs the fans at maximum; simplicity of replacement in the event of failure.
The common mistake: Installing a refurbished server in a room shared with staff or customers without first checking how its fans behave with the components fitted.

Frequently asked questions

My sector is not on the list, can you still help?

Yes. The five sectors shown here are those where we see the most structuring constraints, not a limit on where we work. The method is the same: start from the physical environment and the systems in place, not from a product range.

Do you work with formal specifications and tenders?

Yes. Our work is precisely to turn a requirement into verifiable specifications — standards required, threshold values, written commitments expected from the supplier — which is also what a formal consultation asks for.

Do you work across multiple sites?

Yes, and that is often where sourcing pays best: batch homogeneity across sites, terms negotiated on aggregated volume, and arbitration on licence models, whose scale changes completely on multi-site estates.